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Their August 2025 engagement broke the internet, and if Kansas City’s City Manager Mario Vasquez had a message for the city’s star footballer, Travis Kelce, and global pop superstar, Taylor Swift, it would be that Kansas City is a great place to raise a family. Vasquez knows from personal experience.
“I raised my kids here and both of them realize how good they’ve had it because they left and have since come back,” Vasquez tells The CEO Magazine.
His children aren’t in the minority, either.
“There are a lot of young folk from Kansas City who want to go to college elsewhere and see the world. But they definitely want to raise their families in our cities,” he says.
“The key areas I want to specialize in are community development, so city planning, development, housing issues and neighborhood issues.”
In fact, in 2025 alone, Kansas City was named a Top 3 Metro for Working Moms, a Top Midwestern Metro for Millennials and a Top 10 City for Recent Grads, as well as a Top 10 Housing Hot Spot.
“There’s great food, great people and nightlife, plus the cost of living is low and the economy is healthy thanks to a diversity of economic activity in the city that creates resilience,” he continues. “It’s a true hidden secret.”
Kansas City may tick many boxes from a lifestyle standpoint, but, as Vasquez points out, such accolades also make the city appealing from a business perspective.
“There’s a lot of stability in Kansas City. So, when people want to make a long-term investment, they know it’s going to be a safe and sound investment,” he says.
As Kansas City City Manager, Vasquez is responsible for carrying out the policy set by Mayor Quinton Lucas and the council in his capacity of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city. Population growth is one of his key metrics.
“Cities are in competition with other cities,” he explains. “So, how we know we are doing well is if people want to move into our cities.”
Other areas of concern include business development and tax revenues.
“Of course, we want to increase the growth of the tax base because that means we can deliver more services to citizens,” he says.
“We can provide for parks and paving, street maintenance, all those kinds of things that we partner with the private sector to promote growth.”
Private partners, such as Burns & McDonnell, a national construction, architecture and engineering firm based in Kansas City, are cornerstones ensuring the city’s success.
“We want to make sure that those partnerships yield results – and those results are more people, more business and more tax revenue so that we can deliver more services for our residents,” he says.
A passion for doing better for the community is what continues to drive Vasquez as he approaches his 30th year at Kansas City.
“We don’t do what we do for the money nor the recognition,” he says. “The reason we choose this as our profession is because we want to make things better.”
Born in Bolivia, Vasquez came to the United States when he was 16. He explains that his childhood shaped his career path.
“I ended up in urban planning because I had seen how, in a developing country like Bolivia, the lack of infrastructure – roadways, sewers and water – created economic challenges,” he says.
“I wanted to know how we planned the growth of cities and of communities to promote economic development.”
Figuring out how to get things done is, he says, the best way to describe his expertise.
“You find a solution working with professionals, the business community, neighborhood leaders and elected officials,” he says. “Problem solving and working with people are what have allowed me to get to where I am today.”
So impressed were Mayor Lucas and the city council with Vasquez’s focus on economic development and employee morale that Vasquez won the vote for the city manager role 11–2. He assumed the role in April this year and has hit the ground running.
“I’m working with every major property owner in the city and every neighborhood in the city to get to know them individually and to help advance initiatives and projects that they have in mind,” he says.
He is also on the board of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City to promote economic development and investment in the city.
“We’re driven by trying to make things better, so a simple thank you is such a motivation.”
Vasquez is also now on the board of Visit KC (Visit Kansas City) to ensure that the city remains an attractive place for visitors to come. Next year, the city will host six games in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, including a Quarter Final and Vasquez understands that the event is an unparalleled opportunity to showcase the city to the world. Yet he appreciates that what’s essential for a role like his is a long-term vision.
“The key areas I want to specialize in are community development, so city planning, development, housing issues and neighborhood issues,” he says. “The other focus I want to provide is infrastructure or how we deal with roads, bridges, water and sewers.”
Internal services – procurement, finance, accounts payable and receivable, payroll and tax collection – is another, as is public safety, which he says is now evolving into more than just policing services.
“It’s also community-based services, so how do we handle folks that are having a difficult time with mental health or who are experiencing homelessness, because a lot of the time these issues are dealt with via police services and it comes across as heavy-handed,” he adds.
As Vasquez looks to improve conversations around such subjects, he would also love to see more positivity from the community when interacting with their local civic servants.
“There are folks that are putting a lot of hard hours and labor into what they do and a lot of what we hear is criticism and negativity,” he says. “We’re driven by trying to make things better, so a simple thank you is such a motivation.”
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